Windows Phone 7 ‘NoDo’ Update Is Ready

The long awaited update for Windows Phone 7 is finally ready and will slowly be trickling out to handsets during the week. NoDo’ is the internal name (supposedly in jest of Google’s Donutmoniker) for the update and it brings along the much anticipated copy and paste feature, improved Marketplace searching and better Facebook contact integration. Although this update was first estimated to be available early February, Microsoft delayed to ensure compatibility and functionality for all handsets. Recent updates for Windows Phone 7 handsets were met with some troubles for Samsung devices and again were subsequently held off from public accessibility.

Microsoft has updated their Windows Phone 7 update history page to include the updates slated for March. The version numbering is bumped from 7.0.7008.0 to 7.0.7390.0 and a consumer-friendly changelog is present. In addition to core usability updates many other changes have been made, such as

Faster apps and games. Nobody likes to wait. That’s why we’ve whittled down the time it takes for apps and games to start up and resume. It’s all part of our focus on getting you to the things you love, easier and faster.

Other Marketplace improvements. We’ve improved the stability of Marketplace while you download apps.

Wi-Fi improvements. We now display your phone’s Media Access Control (MAC) address in Settings. (You might need this info if you try to connect to a Wi-Fi network that uses MAC address filtering.

Camera improvements. We’ve improved the stability of switching between camera and video modes.

Audio improvements. We’ve improved the experience of using a Bluetooth headset to make calls when you’re playing music or videos.

Other performance improvements. This month’s update also includes software from several phone manufacturers that improves the performance of specific models. Naturally, if you don’t have one of the affected models, we won’t install this portion of the update on your phone.

Since Windows Phone 7 lacks the integrated carrier customizations that many other platforms allow, Microsoft should have an easy time rolling out updates to all handsets in a timely fashion. Hopefully the days of market and localization-based update pushing are over and this can usher in a fast, seamless and user-friendly method of updating smartphones. Unfortunately, it does appear that you will need to connect your device to a computer in order to update through the Zune suite no OTA at this time.